Dip Into The Book Of MarkSample

DAY 7: WHY DID HE APPEAR TO WOMEN?

If you are going to make your final appearance and you want everyone to know that you have risen from the dead, why would you appear to women? In Chapter 15:40, Mark talks about ‘some women... watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there’. Mark then highlights the women again in Chapter 15:47 at Jesus’ burial and then the climax, when Jesus has risen from the dead. 

Mark is going against the culture's tradition that said women were not to be believed and that you needed the eye-witness accounts of three men to establish truth. Jesus chose these faithful women to witness the angel at the tomb and to be told that He is risen! Even the women said nothing because they were afraid, possibly afraid that they would not be believed and because they were women their testimony would not be accepted. An additional text at the end of Mark expands the story again, confirming that not only did the women see the angel, but Jesus appeared to them, and again they were not believed. I love the additional text in Chapter 16:14, 'Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen'. Oh, to be in that conversation, to be the women standing there as Jesus appeared! Oh, the vindication, the honour and the epic moment that the women possibly shouted, ‘We told you so!’

Jesus never conformed to human traditions or gender biases; He broke the rules and set the captives free. The whole New Testament continues this incredible story, so keep reading!

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